Semiconductor technologies are developing rapidly in recent years. Especially, the lithography technology plays an important role in pattern definition. The application of the lithography technology in semiconductor is to fabricate transparent reticles with specific shapes according to the designed circuit. By using the exposure principle, light passes through reticles and projected to silicon wafers. After exposure, specific patterns are formed. Any dust, particle, or organic matter adhered to reticles will deteriorate the quality of the projected images. Thereby, the reticles used for generating patterns need to be kept absolutely clean. Accordingly, in general wafer fabrication processes, the environment of clean room is provided for avoiding pollution of the particles in the air. Nonetheless, current clean rooms cannot achieve the absolutely dust-free condition.
Antipollution reticle pods are generally adopted in modern semiconductor fabrication processes during storage and transportation for maintaining cleanness of reticles. In semiconductor fabrication processes, reticle pods are used for storing reticles for facilitating transit between processing machines; they isolate reticles from air for avoiding changes due to pollution by impurities. Thereby, in an advanced semiconductor fab, the cleanness of reticles is usually required to comply with the Standard Mechanical Interface (SMIF), namely, under Class I. Accordingly, for complying with the cleanness required by the SMIF, reticle boxes are generally filled with high-purity gas.
Presently, there is at least an inlet at the bottom of a reticle box. High-purity gas can be filled into the reticle pod via the inlet and flows naturally therein. The majority of the high-purity gas flows in the space between the reticle and the bottom of the reticle box; the rest of the high-purity gas flows in the space between the reticle and the top of the reticle pod. Thereby, the distribution of the high-purity gas in the reticle pod is nonuniform and hence the cleaning effect of the high-purity gas for the reticle pod is inferior; the high-purity gas has to be filled continuously into the reticle pod until the reticle is completely cleaned. Consequently, the usage of the high-purity has is increased, and the efficiency of filling high-purity gas into reticle pods is inferior.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a reticle pod having gas guiding apparatus, which comprises a gas guiding apparatus guiding the high-purity gas entering the reticle pod via the inlet. Thereby, the high-purity gas can be distributed uniformly in the spaces between the reticle and the top of the reticle pod and between the reticle and the bottom of the reticle pod. The problem described above can be thus solved.